Power Your Car With an Electric Toothbrush!

"South Korea's top technology university has developed a plan to power electric cars through recharging strips embedded in roadways that use a technology to transfer energy found in some electric toothbrushes."

I read just so far, paused, and had visions... I've often mused on the residual dark-energy found in electric toothbrushes,-if you're at all psychic, you can see the crackling field of satanic power that surrounds such a thing. Wise folk, fearing contagion, plague, or being posessed by a demon, shun these frightening devices. I, being braver than many, simply wear an amulet, made by the wise old lady who lives in the hovel in the woods. And use my buzzy-brush without fear.

It seems that, protected by my amulet, I could collect dozens of electric toothbrushes, rip out my diesel turbo engine, and stuff a bundle of buzzing gum stimulators in its place. NOOOOO!!! ladies, ladies, TOOTHBRUSHES only!...... Well, obviously a gearbox redesign might be needed, in order to translate buzz into forward motion.

Maybe I should read the rest of the article.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25498972-5014239,00.html

Sigh. How disappointing. A more honest journalist would simply have said "induction charging". Yes, toothbrushes do use it, and so do a lot of other things.
However, the sentence structure used is clumsy, a confusion between subject and predicate. My old schoolteacher, Miss Carter, would have rapped my knuckles for writing such a confused sentence. When I was eight. Why is it that journalists are not ALL required to be literate?

p.s. I'm not a journalist. my use of English may often be open to criticism. I will rarely feel guilty if I transgress.

Oh Beautiful! I Want an Air Penguin.......

And the graceful Air Jellyfish...



These are made by German firm Festo, exploring the future of robotics, but crossing a border into bio-mimicry and art. In my huge mansion, that I will one day have, I think I'll have shoals of these roaming the atrium.



Click the video embedded links or google Festo for lots more, but for me, these are the most beautiful of Festo's creatures.

Eight Miles High, Byrds.

A live concert recording from the Byds gig, the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1968.
I loved this song in 1968, no less now. In 1968, the first manned Apollo mission was launched, (Apollo 7) the first space mission to carry a three man crew, a previously unheard of eleven day orbital mission, later that year Apollo 8 left earth orbit and travelled to the moon on a three-day journey, completing ten lunar orbits, in preparation for the moon landing in july '69.
1968 was a time of unrest and rebellion, of assassination and unease, Russian tanks crushed the Prague Spring rebellion, Paris was ablaze, Martin Luther King was murdered. Baader-Meinhof guerilla gang bombs go off in Berlin, Wiki 1968.
Others were exploring inner space.
"The obscure lyrics, penned by Clark, are about the group's plane trip touring England in 1965. "Eight miles high, and when you touch down, you'll find that it's stranger than known." Airliners fly at an altitude of six to seven miles high; but it was felt that "eight miles high" sounded better. Unconvinced, the BBC banned the song"
The BBC didn't like that word "high"........

Bookshop of my Dreams, Oporto.

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Tea -Carol Anne Duffy

I like pouring your tea, lifting
the heavy pot, and tipping it up,
so the fragrant liquid streams in your china cup.

Or when you’re away, or at work,
I like to think of your cupped hands as you sip,
as you sip, of the faint half-smile of your lips.

I like the questions – sugar? – milk? –
and the answers I don’t know by heart, yet,
for I see your soul in your eyes, and I forget.

Jasmine, Gunpowder, Assam, Earl Grey, Ceylon,
I love tea’s names. Which tea would you like? I say
but it’s any tea for you, please, any time of day,

as the women harvest the slopes
for the sweetest leaves, on Mount Wu-Yi,
and I am your lover, smitten, straining your tea.

Muleskinner Blues

Safety Advice

I bought some batteries today at Sainsburys. They came with an RFID (radio frequency identity) sticker on the back, I assume the store believes that shoplifters will be trying to steal batteries, and this sticker will set off the store's door alarm... However, the sticker says:
"SECURITY PROTECTED Please remove before putting in microwave" Now I'd never thought of putting batteries in my microwave before. Maybe it recharges them or gives them superpower? I read all the small-print. Oh... Actually I didn't, because that sticker was put over the safety information, and peeling the sticker off peels the small-print off too. And I'm not too good at reading Greek or Portuguese or Dutch, so, I'll assume you're supposed to stick them in the microwave in the packaging.. I'll put the four I'd taken out back in, and give them about four minutes.


Of course, if there's an almighty bang, and my kitchen is wrecked, and I am injured, there's a pretty good chance I can sue Sainsburys for millions, because a) that sticker implies I'm supposed to put them in the microwave. b) the sticker implies that just removing the sticker is all that's needed as preparation for putting a pack of eight batteries in the microwave, and c), the sticker obliterates and destroys whatever english language safety and usage warnings may or may not be present beneath it.

As a further point, the business of retailers glueing stickers over safety information and usage instructions is common, pharmacists do it as well, and of course, they use unpeelable adhesives too.

Wish me luck.

down in the basement